Beautiful location, beautiful resort and staff

Pros: This resort has the friendliest staff who are engaging and willing to meet your every need. The entertainment staff bring high energy for fun daytime activities from beach volleyball to aqua aerobics The food was excellent with 5 unique restaurants with wonderful service

Cons: Everything was outstanding but the furnishing are a bit dated and worn

Great

Cons: Never got a change to get a beach chair. People would claim chairs early and only use them for a few hours but horde them for the entire day

Nice resort, clean, good food, good service, good price. Annoyed every day regarding pool loungers.

Pros: The food was very good. Service and people were nice. Best Dinner was Italian. Breakfast is available in 2 restaurants (the Deck and Spices and you always have the option of 24-hour room service.) I found out after getting to the resort that most people made dinner reservations a week before they arrived. That left us with some late night (9:00 pm) reservations. We kept checking back with the concierge and did get some earlier reservations. Call the concierge to make reservations before your trip, NO NOT email. Now that I know this this will not be an issue if we go back.

Cons: This was annoying. There are approximately 100 loungers around the 2 pools. Not enough for all guests. Beach loungers are available also if you get there early. At least 26 choice chairs at the pool had signs reserving them for the week. I asked about this, "can I pay more and get this service?" The employees in the main lobby acted really surprised about the reserved loungers, with actual reserved signs, claiming to know nothing about this. But promised to get back to me, they never did. The remaining 74 chairs do not all have umbrellas. If you want a lounger set your alarm for 5:30am - 6:00 am (and earlier) so you can put personal items on loungers, at 8:00 am all loungers are usually gone. I do not like getting up so early on vacation. Getting up early to reserve loungers seems very low class to me and I asked myself, am I really doing this? Should I just pay more and go somewhere else. I saw choice loungers, with umbrellas, reserved, that no one used all day. Guests were out on full day excursions with chairs reserved that went unused all day! Chairs should be available to all guests if they are not being used. Also, each pair of loungers should have a working umbrella. Other resorts work this out. Barcellos is one of the largest chains in the world, they could work this out. There should be no reason that some guests get preferential treatment and others who have to get up in the dark in order to get loungers or go all day without. You should see the frustrated look on some of the guests faces when they come down after 8:00 am and have no loungers. This was no doubt the worst part of the resort, mentioned by many guests. Lastly, just one suggestion to Barcellos, why not set up a small coffee shop where people could get coffee, shakes, smoothies and pastry during the day. I have seen this at many other resorts and guests really seem to enjoy this as a place to relax out of the sun.

Passable

Pros: The property and the room were very nice.

Cons: Charming all-inclusive hotel but if you did not make a reservation for dinner on time, you are out of luck and need to get out of the hotel for dinner or order room service. I was out of the hotel property every day and was back to the hotel afternoon or later (late to reserve a table). I try a number of times to reserve a table for dinner at two restaurants, first, at Spices, they told me after checking, then calling to the manager, as few couples were waiting that they are fully booked (few people were in), I check and try to see if the Azia has a space, they also were fully booked without reviewing if any table is open (the restaurant at 9:30 PM was empty), I checked in the front desk, the very not nice person in the front desk told me, all are booked and again without checking. Overall, a very clear message, if you did not make a reservation, do not stop by our restaurant because we are not going to get you a table. Very disappointed.

With a few minor improvements this resort could be a true 5 star. We will return!

Pros: The rooms are spacious and airy. We had sheers for privacy in the day and heavy drapes for nighttime. The room had a King Size bed. And there was plenty of space to store our clothes in the large night table drawers and the small walk-in. The bathrooms are large with rain shower, hand held shower, a separate tub and double sinks. We loved the LOccitane soaps and shampoo although we were surprised that there was no conditioner or body cream which is standard in every other resort. The food served in the specialty restaurants was excellent. Both pools and the beach area were beautifully maintained. We found that the Royal Hideaway Adults Only beach was the best when compared to the other resort beaches along the beach front. They had less space, fewer mature palm trees for shade and the beach chairs were crowded together. The services of our concierge, Karla, were excellent. Karlas attention to our requests were above and beyond our expectations. Every staff member was helpful and very friendly.

Cons: The air conditioning system did not function well and there was a very musty smell when we entered our first room. Even though the repairmen came to clean the filters and repair the air conditioning system, we had to change rooms as the problem remained despite their efforts. Our 2nd bedroom was much better in terms of air conditioning temperature and a fresh smell, so we were very pleased with this room change. The cleaning staff came daily to clean our room, however, there were inconsistencies such as forgotten facecloths, lack of a top sheet on our bed one day. A checklist would definitely assist the cleaning staff to avoid these issues.

Amazing beach views with great drinks and food.

Pros: The service was excellent. Great food and drink options. Beach was clean and beautiful!

Cons: Impossible to get a chair by the pool. The resort had half of them reserved for people who never showed up. And other individuals would reserve chairs with a book and not be there for most of the day. Need better control of the situation.

Superb

Pros: The staff was helpful, the food was delicious. The beach was amazing. I've attended to the bike tour and booked a tennis class. It enriched our experience. Playacar is a nice neighbourhood to take a walk and ride a bike. The hotel is very close to 5th Av. as well if you're interested in.

Perfect

Superb

Pros: location, food, comfort, lack of crowds.

Cons: slow service at the dine-in settings.

Can daily this beautiful property and friend staff.

Pros: Everything. But food was amazing an location ideal

Cons: Beautiful gardens and lovely room

Bad

Pros: Spacious rooms and nice staff. Lots of wildlife. Beach was nice but not looked after.

Cons: Do not stay here if you are looking for a 5 star hotel experience. I dont know who the owner pays to keep this status. The food was disappointing, the rooms were dated with cleaning and maintenance issues. They frequently ran out of beach towels to give and also not many pool beds available. Quiet pools were not looked after and was very gross to use. The beach was not looked after, it was full of rubbish. The public shower at the pool was blocked. The coffee machine in the room was broken. We had to ask for shampos and slippers, as well as towels on our arrival. The food was also disappointing - the Grill was the best option we tried on our stay but the rest were very bland, my partner had also upset stomach on one of the days.

It was ok. Friends and family made it fun considering I traveled solo with no mate.

Pros: The location and beach was the best.

Cons: I didn't like the check in and checkout process. It's very slow and they normally have one person doing both. If you are on a time frame it's best to plan for it. There not alot going on in terms of entertainment.. Good for couple wanting to relax and be low key. I found the steakhouse had the best menu. The other restaurants were ok. ..

Beyond expectations

Pros: Excellent location, service and people

Wonderful spot for a perfect vacation!

Pros: The location, staff, perfect size, it was very calm.

Cons: The beach seats could be better.

Perfect

Very good

Very good

Cons: TV in the rooms need to be upgraded to smart TVs. Air conditioning was week.

Tranquil, luxurious, best service, and beautiful beach

Pros: The attention, authentic brand drinks, service, room service, tub in room, beautiful clean beach, the peace being adults only

Cons: -

Relaxing Beach Resort

Pros: The resort is lovely, very spacious, beautiful grounds and well laid out. Very large rooms with dressing room, spa bath, separate toilet and shower room. Very comfy bed and a lovely outlook over the tropical garden and water feature running through the grounds. Mini bar is replenished each day with soft drinks, beer and snacks. Each villa block has a concierge/butler to answer any questions, make restaurant bookings etc. Beach is very clean with beautiful white sand. There is drink and food service around the pools and beach. There is also a lifeguard on the beach. There are daily activities around the pool area if you wish to partake, games, aqua aerobics etc. There are five restaurants but be aware you have to pre book them otherwise you cant enter, something we were not told on check in and this created some issues until we worked out the system. Also the three top restaurants Azia, Palazzo & Ventanas have a strict dress code for men, covered shoes, long trousers & collared shirts. They other two The Grill and Spices allow dress shorts in the evening. Once again this was not pointed out to us on check in. Staff are overall friendly and helpful. Overall apart from a few annoyances which I will cover below we had a lovely relaxing week at this resort.

Cons: The check in staff seriously let this resort down. They are surly, unhelpful and rude. Our check in took ages and the staff member was irritated throughout the whole process. There was no bell boy to meet us on arrival, resulting in us having to carry our own suitcases up the stairs to reception. We were not told that you had to make dinner reservations for the restaurants otherwise you cant get in. We were not told about the very strict dress code which resulted, on our first night being threatened with security if we didnt leave the restaurant. Appalling behavior for a resort which promotes itself as being high end. Overall your check in staff need retraining and some lessons in customer courtesy and certainly just general good manners. We have travelled extensively throughout the world and always the check in staff give you a basic rundown of the resort. Hopefully you can address this issue and others dont have to experience what we did.

Pros: Quiet place Design

Cons: Poor selection of food, food wasn't great taste, AC not working properly in rooms, no AC in restaurants or main building,lack of exterior maintenance, not friendly stuff,no interest in guests,rooms outdated,insects in rooms, dirty water in bathrooms